Featured photo by Erin Douglas.
Story by Calvin White
MURFREESBORO, Tenn- Following the team’s third losing season in the past five years, Middle Tennessee athletic director Chris Massaro announced that Rick Stockstill has been relieved of his duties as head football coach.
Stockstill, who was the fourth-longest tenured coach in college football, compiled an overall record of 113-111 in 18 seasons as head coach of the Blue Raiders.
Stockstill signed a contract extension before last season for around $10 million and would run through 2028. Stockstill met the requirements to auto-extend his contract through 2029. The former Blue Raider head coach is owed a buyout of approximately $5 million.
Massaro says the buyout money will not come straight out of the university’s pocket. The money will come from conference realignment fees that the university has in a rainy day fund.
“The money for the buyout is being set aside,” Massaro said in a press conference Monday afternoon. “With exit and entry fees and all the money we collected due to realignment, we did put aside some of that for a rainy day fund. So that will be the fund that we will use to pay for the buyout. There’s not any university dollars attached to the buyout.”
In 18 seasons, Stockstill won one Sun Belt regular season championship, a Conference USA division title and 10 bowl games. Entering this season, MTSU was picked to finish third in CUSA but finished 3-5 against conference opponents.
Massaro cited Stockstill’s record against conference opponents over the last five seasons as a major issue and something that needed to be improved upon.
“What I’ve always tried to do is evaluate from conference to conference,” Massaro said. “That’s what you’re paid to do is beat the people inside your conference. The last five years we’re 16-22 inside our conference so this wasn’t about just this season.”
Massaro currently does not have any leading candidates to be MTSU’s new head coach but says the athletic department will start the search immediately.
MTSU’s best season under Stockstill came in 2018 when the Blue Raiders went 7-1 in conference play. MTSU lost at home to UAB in the conference championship game. Stockstill never won a conference championship at the helm in Murfreesboro.
Calvin White is the sports editor of MTSU Sidelines. If you have information for a story, you can contact him at wcw3f@mtmail.mtsu.edu. For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com. Also, follow us on Facebook and Instagram @mtsusidelines, or on X @MTSUSidelines.
